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William Paul's avatar

I liked the line about how free range chickens basically all love being held captive; how people who don't criticize their government but think they have the right to do so are not thinking at all. Bravo!

But in the U.S., it was not possible to criticize:

* Ukraine being run by a rich con artist who is a puppet;

* The vaccine;

* Masks;

* The weeks it takes to run an "election" until the Democrats win;

* Woke anything;

* BLM;

* The videos that were almost immediately scrubbed from the internet where the cops let in the January 6 protestors;

and a bunch of other Soviet-Style agitprop.

It's as if Goebbels runs our media.

I am really sick of our corporatist, censorship-laden, fascist government, which is now run by a lifelong groomer, Joe Biden.

I would love any progressive who came along and condemned the U.S. funding Ukraine, and wanted this hellish war over with.

I've been thinking a lot about all of the lies we get told by: the legal and medical profession. And how many public schools are indoctrination camps that teach nothing useful. And how our media--PMSNBC and Fox--are 99% garbage. It's all soy globalism with them: they want us fat, sick, isolated, depressed, stupid, and poor. They want to extract as much economic value from us as possible, and then they want us dead. And when they kill us, they'll do it in the name of the environment. They won't mean it, our large corporations, but they'll say it.

The antidote is for us not just to wake up, but for us to create parallel societies, like the Czechs did in the 1980s. Those parallel systems helped collapse their dictatorship.

Be free.

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bill wolfe's avatar

"And when they kill us, they'll do it in the name of the environment."

Why are you driving at here? Be specific.

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William Paul's avatar

The large corporations, the Gates, the Soros, the WEF, etc., will all claim they love the environment, and they will use that to deprive farmers of fertilizer, which they are doing in the Netherlands and in Sri Lanka, etc. This obviously leads to food shortages, all of which are created by humans, not nature.

In short, the bad guys always claim to be the good guys.

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MISS M NELSON's avatar

I think you should change this whole thing to state a majority of westerners. Otherwise you are stereotyping everyone of us. There are actually thinkers in the working classes. We just get banned, stuck down the news feeds, silenced, hacked, trolled, psyoped bullied, gaslit, invalidated. Benefit bashed, poverty primed. Persecuted, discriminated on. Our rights removed. Frankly if I was abled and wealthy enough and secure enough I would go live elsewhere but as I’m disabled and a none intellectually disabled autodidactic autistic with a cauda equina risk I’m trapped in this Sh*thole with a multitude of fascists and Nazi robot sheep. I’m always criticise protest campaign sign petitions etc etc to the detriment of my health. I see you on Mewe. I despise the war machine the corruption, paedophilia scamming capitalistic greed and austerity and crushing of public economies and the injustice and other peoples apathy shallowness and ignorance. There is that strongly worded enough for you. 🤣🤣🥰🥰

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KW NORTON's avatar

And frankly we need to move beyond “Westerners”. On a round planet these ways of dividing ourselves into West and East is passé. As an American I am a citizen of the world can become “we are all citizens of the world”.

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Fran's avatar

Prior to the Trump years I always thought that left wing sites maintained an objectivity which was compelling and interesting to read, and that was true for many years. Once Trump came into office many of those sites lost their independence and objectivity, like the Intercept, like Alternet, and Common Dreams, etc, so there were very few sites one could reference to get the news and get an objective perspective on things. Greenwald left the Intercept because they wouldn't let him publish information on Hunter's lap top, and there was a lot of contention over Russia-gate. Risen a highly respected journalist was a real Trump hater which blurred his perspective as it did with Jeremy Scahill . Video: Glenn Greenwald and James Risen Debate the Trump/Russia Investigation. Another example is Greenwald having to defend the Mueller report to David Cay Johnson on Democracy Now who also went off track during the Trump years, and I think Amy Goodman did as well. Interesting how so many who prided themselves on their objective reporting lost it, and I wonder why. Robert Parry never did, and unfortunately he died in 2017. I truly miss him. Even Chomsky went with Trump hate. I could name others, but I won't. Of course the democrats used Trump to generate a great divide in this country and they continue to do so. Democrats and their policies good, republican policies bad. When you turn things to black and white like America good, Russia bad, or use hate to discredit an opponent the world becomes a more dangerous place, and I wonder if so many didn't implement Trump hate we would be living in such a dangerous world, as we are now. Some who reference themselves as independent and objective journalists will acknowledge on some level Obama's role in orchestrating a coup in Ukraine using the driving neo-nazi force behind it, but soften that with he didn't send weapons to Ukraine and focus on the treaties broken by Trump, and the weapons sent, which is equally disingenuous, and highly biased since they don't acknowledge the highly prejudicial atmosphere the democrats and press thrust him into. Maybe they should have a chat with Chomsky who claims Trump is the only Western Statements who could help to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

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CarbonCopy's avatar

Are you sure it was Obama and not this idiot Biden and son?

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Fran's avatar

Too often Obama gets a pass, but it is during his administration that he and his administration supported a coup in Ukraine. Biden was just put in charge, and managed to find his son a job,, 50 thousand a month sitting on the board of Burisma, knowing nothing. We ignore Obama's wars during his administration and focus on Clinton in Libya and ignore his dirty war in Syria, not to mention his propensity for droning.

You -Tube THE US COUP IN UKRAINE - EXPLAINED

Ron Paul Institute.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2015/february/02/obama-admits-us-role-in-ukraine-overthrow/

Good summation based on Oliver Stone's film Ukraine on Fire.

https://greatreject.org/ukraine-on-fire-full-documentary/

https://www.liberationnews.org/nazis-in-ukraine-seeing-through-the-fog-of-the-information-war/

Washington Was Behind Ukraine Coup: Obama admits that US “Brokered a Deal” in Support of “Regime Change” https://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-was-behind-ukraine-coup-obama-admits-that-us-brokered-a-deal-in-support-of-regime-change/5429142

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J Taff's avatar

Well said. Reflects exactly my sentiments.

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Fran's avatar

He is no liberal either and wasn't when he was in Chicago politics, yet he holds on to that title.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

They Keep Us Focused On Decoy Dichotomies -- https://substack.com/inbox/post/84405554

20 year Afghan’s gravy train was promptly replaced by Ukraine gravy train – to immense joy of both party and media “elites” happily grunting together at SAME donor feeding through

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Merfy Mac's avatar

Gen X kids remember nights in bed worrying about sudden blinding atomic flashes, their family vaporized by the nuclear blast. Less than a generation later those same kids aren’t thinking about the horrors of feckless Armageddon. What changed?

Somewhere along the line, something’s been lost. Some connection to the world... I don’t know.

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BMeowDawg's avatar

Agree that individual worship is foolishness. But communism don’t work either, and creates the worst atrocities even faster. Capitalism, where prices are set according to individual desires, coupled with strong antitrust and tort systems seems to provide the best chance at a decent life.

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KW NORTON's avatar

No “ism” works. Communism, capitalism, other “isms” have all proven to be capable of totalitarianism and fascism. Time to dump the “isms”. In many ways the true genius of the founding ancestors was to recognize our common sense humanity. They failed for reasons we can analyze. But is doe mean we are doomed to failure now. To fail here is to loose everything.

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Feral Finster's avatar

All systems eventually become oligarchies, all systems eventually turn sociopathic.

This is why, after some 5,000 years of recorded history, there are no clear answers as to what systems "work" and temporarily successful examples can be found of just about every political and economic system imaginable. In fact, all such systems can be made to work tolerably well, to the extent that they are run by non-sociopaths.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

All value systems are totalitarian. Every last one of them weighs some action as a part of some imagined whole (a *totality*) for some imagined audience. As long as people systematically try to weigh every thing in terms of others, absurdities and grotesques will be produced and reproduced ad nauseam.

On the other hand, without these self-inconsistent systems of normative obsession, collective interest is difficult to recognize, and so collective action and collective meaning are difficult to realize. It's a sticky problem where little details evolve far-reaching consequences.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Socialism is the future of humanity

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BMeowDawg's avatar

Centralized power like that is a disaster for humanity every time. See EU at present, destroying itself as corrupt unelected bureaucrats deprive citizens of fuel and food and wage war on whim.

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MISS M NELSON's avatar

It needs to be socialist peoples assemblies with representatives from different people including the sick and disabled and mentally ill as well as all the minorities and if all ages to have a voice and boot out the millionaires. Then the idea might work. Get rid of lords and the unelected. Include environmentalists so I think eco socialism

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Nov 14, 2022
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KW NORTON's avatar

Yep, we have met the enemy and it is us. We now need anti-face recognition makeup to walk down the street on our prison planet.

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MISS M NELSON's avatar

Socialism

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bill wolfe's avatar

"Capitalism, where prices are set according to individual desires"

Almost too ridiculous to even parody.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Why do you believe individual desires should be judged and valued?

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Eripmelive's avatar

They make US Americans to feel the freedom of choice the same way they usher them into a buffet of bullshit so they can gorge themselves with a variety of bullshit and burp on their freedom to die early.

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Ina Martinez's avatar

A week ago I had to laugh at a living example of what you are talking about here: We were at a free public Museum in Los Angeles, California with signs asking to stop the US embargo on Cuba. An old couple told us we were lucky to be against the government in the USA because here we enjoyed freedom of speech while immediately he made sure we were escorted out of the museum!

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YesXorNo's avatar

Stop the embargo against Cuba: UN General Assembly vote 185 for 2 against (USA and the new Apartheid) and two abstentions (Ukraine and I can remember who else).

This is the "Cuba annual vote". It has been passed for 30 straight years. USA? Nope.

What is global opinion or the "community of nations'? The world stands against Russia (except for most of the world). Protect Israel from the rocks being thrown by kids at their occupiers and instead arm Israel with tanks. Arm the extremist Muslims against the secular government of Afghanistan, achieve the dissolution of the USSR and then come back 20 years later to do it all again and lose to the extremists you put in power in the first place. Kill half a million children via sanctions in Iraq in the 90s' (it was "worth it") and then come back a decade later and kill a milliion more (and displace 5 times that). Fund and supply Indonesia to kill 2 million people (single largest non-war genocide in the 20th century) . Kill 3+ million more in Vietnam. Build enough nuclear weapons to wipe out most complex life on earth many times over.

The USA leadership (both the visible and deep state) have completely lost the plot. Disinformation Governance Board, Department of "Homeland" Security, the "Space" Force, no public health care, decaying infrastructure, widespread poverty and they can't run a national election in a day.

I stop now, before I get to Latin America.

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MISS M NELSON's avatar

Totally agree and uk where it’s complicit

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knovgrod's avatar

The first step in the right direction would be to start dissolving almost everything at the federal level. Government and lawmaking needs to be returned exclusively to the states. Anything beyond that is ineffective and invites usurpation of the people's will. Eliminate the political party system as it only creates discord, distraction and division. Eventually we need to have anonymous state elections based on a candidate's platform only. One 2 yr term maximum, to be recalled automatically if they do not adhere to their platform. The Senate, the office of Presidency, and the Supreme Court declared unnecessary and disbanded. No more family dynasties holding power for generations. Ideally DC will become an American Versailles --a ghostly tourist destination, maintained only for revenue to support a skeleton national budget. Its buildings and monuments allowed to remain standing as a reminder of how easily power corrupts if left unchecked and unattended by the people.

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Outsider's avatar

We're seeing Thucydides Trap play out in real time. The Hegemon will never give up until it is soundly defeated. I often wish that China and Russia would really lock forces, destroy the Hegemon, and be done with it.

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Jennifer Depew, R.D.'s avatar

Thanks, Caitlin for sharing your perceptions - so wise.

I am copying my Telegram post about your article:

Caitlin Johnstone may now be my favorite wordsmith. And if I hadn't gotten active on SubStack I wouldn't be aware of her. - "Westerners are "free" in the same way "free range" chickens are free; sure the door's technically open and they can technically go outside, but they're conditioned never to do so. Western so-called liberal democracy purports to offer freedom while in practice only offering the illusion of freedom." - Caitlin Johnstone, #SoTrue

She tackles the problem of 'pedestal people' as I call them - Western media makes a dichotomy of 'These are super evil people we have to hate and malign verbally daily', and 'These are the super wonderful awesome leaders that can do no wrong and who will magically save the day like super-heroes.' // This is something that happened to me, I saw it first-hand from a "What is going on?" perspective. I was 'elevated' by the controlled media and made into a pedestal person larger than life and superhero ready to save the day - and I knew I had skills but was just a person with no money and not much experience in public speaking beyond nutrition counseling. I foresaw that I was going to be pushed off the pedestal at some point. I just didn't foresee how thoroughly it would happen and how it would never end. I expected the 15 minutes of fame & then people get bored and move on style - instead the secrecy has kept it an intriguing insider joke and opportunity to have an approved of scapegoat to bash for social credit with their own fans.

Caitlin's post about double dichotomies - #veryimportant. We have a both sides problem - both R's and D's include some of the child abusing cover-up blackmailer league. And the agencies likely have more because they can stay there and not have to get re-elected every few years. https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/they-keep-us-focused-on-decoy-dichotomies

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denmla's avatar

...You right 100%, but ?.... simply, education!(G. Carlin) , system is broke by Gerry Spence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ6oxkqJzfw&t=8s) , fat people do not strike !! ( limited mobility, itentional obesity of population, leads to lethargy) , as long as they have !> Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; for the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses. for some reason I woul add beer too! JUVENAL, strange how History, remind me of 'humans' faulty chromosomes !....NO CURE , ''we'' are long time condition for this!.....

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

“ …the same tyrannical agendas march forward regardless of who sits in the White House.”

So Caitlin believes that there is a deep state?

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

The professional-managerial class, theorized by the Ehrenreichs' 1977 paper, is the social formation particular to the scientific management movement, aka the Progressive movement, the same one Teddy Roosevelt respected. Its goal is to build a "'rational', reproducible social order," essentially Plato's Philosopher-Kings in business suits. Is there a priesthood? There always is, but you're more likely to find them cloistered in "think" tanks, academia, or other sinecures than in political office.

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MISS M NELSON's avatar

There is but I think it’s global

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Babel-17's avatar

"Here I can criticize my government ... for not more closely aligning itself to the policies that the media and financial elites want, and which their army of trolls is pushing."

Burn more coal to savez Youcrane!!! Free people from being Putin puppets by liberating them with a bullet! Sending more weapons to Ukraine is like a BLM/LBGTQ parade, because I get a dopamine rush from reading about either!

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Jac's avatar

I think this line of comments has hit the finishing line.

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ginger's avatar

Why do all large governments prioritise the wishes of the 1% globalist kleptocratic power-addicts rather than the populations they are elected to represent?

Simple. Whoever owns the economy has the power to buy governments, lawmakers, and the judiciary.

So the root cause to all corruption is the fact that the general population do not directly own and control the majority of the resources to produce wealth.

Why don’t more of us refuse to work for or buy from the 1% globalists, instead either working for ourselves with debt-free resources, or joining others to build democratic business enterprises?

If we did, politicians would answer to us rather than the current owner class (as WE would be the owner class).

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